A new analysis of glaucoma patients finds that longer lapses in follow-up care are linked to a significantly higher risk of going blind in at least one eye. The study, recently published in Ophthalmology Glaucoma, examines data from a national registry of 149,172 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and reveals that patients who skip routine eye-care visits may face dramatically worse outcomes.
The study found:
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Overall, 4.2% of the patients studied developed monocular blindness—that is, irreversible vision loss in one eye—during the follow-up period
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Compared with patients who maintained yearly visits, those who had a 1- to 2-year gap in care had an adjusted relative risk (aRR) of 1.19 for blindness
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The risk grew sharply for patients with longer interruptions: those who went 3–4 years without a visit had an aRR of 2.17
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The study also found that patients of Black race or ethnicity experienced even greater risk under the same lapse-in-care conditions — highlighting disparities across demographic groups
The researchers concluded that for patients, the study suggests that consistent, regular follow-up—even when things seem stable—is critical. Even a single 1–2-year lapse in care appears to meaningfully raise the chance of irreversible vision loss in at least one eye.
